Various methods and apparatus have been developed for detecting explosives and other hazardous materials, e.g. chemical agents used in the course of manufacturing nuclear weapons and chemical weapons, as well as for detection of drugs. All such materials are hereinafter in the specification and claims referred to collectively as hazardous materials.
As the concern of terrorist and criminal actions increases worldwide, the need to develop effective detection of hazardous materials increases, in particular when concerned with explosive materials, however not restricted thereto. One common way is use of detecting dogs and sensitive analytical technologies. To enable the training of such dogs and their accompanying personnel, and/or the calibrating of sensitive instruments, it has been necessary to use significant quantities of explosives (in most cases ‘neat’ materials) which pose a hazard as well as preventing dog training or instrument utilization in some critical or restricted areas. For example, during the training and utilization of detecting dogs, quantities of hazardous explosives are carried in vehicles and placed in buildings which resulted in the possibility of explosive detonation. The need for explosive materials thus complicates detection training in populated areas such as airports, train stations, office buildings, etc. Furthermore, use of explosive materials is admitted for authorized personnel, and also, special logistics are required, e.g. for storage, transportation, etc.
Similarly, calibrating of sensitive analytical instruments used for the detection of explosives could only be accomplished by the presence of ‘neat’ explosives, though in small quantities, but creating a hazard to the handling personnel and to the equipment. Thus, there has been a need to develop safe methods of training explosives detecting dogs and personnel, and/or calibrating sensitive analytical instruments, and other applications, without the use of actual hazardous explosives.
Apart for safety issues and logistic complications concerned with hazardous materials, in the case of drugs detection training, a different issue evolves when utilizing actual drugs. This positions a problem with criminals which may take advantage of different situations and try some criminal acts.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,359,936 and 5,413,812 (the later divided out of U.S. Ser. No. 08/027,366, now said U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,936) disclose an explosive simulant which is chemically equivalent to an explosive, but is not detonable. The simulants are manufactured either by slurry coating technique to produce a material with a very high binder to explosive ratio without masking the explosive vapor, or by coating inert beads with thin layers of explosive molecules.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,636, (which is a Combination-In-Part of U.S. Ser. No. 08/221,568 and now said U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,812), discloses a simulant which is chemically equivalent to an explosive, but is not detonable or explodable. The simulant is a combination of an explosive material with an inert material, either in a matrix or as a coating, where the explosive has a high surface ratio but small volume ratio. The simulant has particular use in the training of explosives detecting dogs, calibrating analytical instruments which are sensitive to either vapor or elemental composition, or other applications where the hazards associated with explosives is undesirable but where chemical and/or elemental equivalence is required. The explosive simulants may be fabricated by the use of standard slurry coatings to produce a material with a very high binder to explosive ratio without masking the explosive vapor, or by coating inert substrates with thin layers of explosive molecules.
Other simulant materials are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,756,006 and 5,958,299.
The present invention satisfies the need of providing simulant materials which are chemically equivalent to the actual hazardous materials required for training and for operational uses, in nearly all aspects. However in the case of explosive materials simulants they cannot chemically react violently (no to detonation, or deflagration, or explosion), whereby the use of actual hazardous explosives is eliminated, thereby removing the hazards associated with the use of explosives. Furthermore, the simulant materials can also be used for detection by instruments that do not rely on odors, e.g. density, crystallographic structure, chemical structure, etc.
In connection with explosives (defined herein to mean explosives as well as gun and rocket propellants), an explosion is defined as a rapid energy release while detonation is energy release at supersonic velocities. Thus a non-detonable material may still be explodable. Therefore, safe materials are required, which are referred to in the art as Non-hazardous Explosives for Security, Training and Testing (NESTT). Hence safe use NESTT materials are those which are non-detonable and also non-explodable.
The materials according to the above prior art patents are in the form of loose material, which have some deficiencies, such as causing an irritation to the sniffing dogs, difficulties in placing/applying the material, the need for special ‘sniffing containers’, etc.
Hereinafter in the specification and claims, the term ‘non-explosive material’ denotes a material which may be considered as a non-explodable, non-deflagradable and non-detonable material (i.e. compatible as a non class 1 material, as per definitions of the UN Regulations, the US Department Of Transportation (DOT) and other safety standards).
It is an object of the present invention to provide simulant materials which as a primary condition are safe for handling, i.e. being non-explosive materials and substantially non-hazardous, and which on the other hand are easy and cheap to manufacture and are easily applicable in a variety of forms and for different applications. It is a further object of the present invention to offer a method for manufacturing simulant materials of the aforementioned type.